By almost any measure, 2008 was a complete disaster for Wall Street — except, that is, when the bonuses arrived.

Despite crippling losses, multibillion-dollar bailouts and the passing of some of the most prominent names in the business, employees at financial companies in New York, the now-diminished world capital of capital, collected an estimated $18.4 billion in bonuses for the year.

That was the sixth-largest haul on record, according to a report released Wednesday by the New York State comptroller.

While the payouts paled next to the riches of recent years, Wall Street workers still took home about as much as they did in 2004, when the Dow Jones industrial average was flying above 10,000, on its way to a record high.

Some bankers took home millions last year even as their employers lost billions.

While regulators say it is unclear if taxpayer money went to these folks, it is quite clear that taxpayer money certainly helped make sure these payments got made.

This is sickening.

Tell me what great performance warranted this kind of bonus money? The fabulous condition of Wall Street? The outstanding profitability? The huge boost to the American economy?

Or did they get bonuses for successfully milking the American taxpayer?

Now you know why you should be suspicious of the passage of the “stimulus” bill last night by the Democrats in the House. (And only by the Democrats). I suspect you also know why the Republicans – and 11 Democrats – managed to have enough gumption to refuse to vote for that pork-laden bill.

The numbers are large, but not everyone got them. Part of the problem with these bonuses is that much of them are either guaranteed or are deferred compensation. Many of the people on Wall Street who do the investment banking work get paid over the course of the year roughly 1/4 of what they ‘expect’ to make in an average year. The rest comes in bonus. While the firm lost money, there group may not. The bonuses are allocated by group, regrettably. To use the Citi financial supermarket, even thought the store lost money because of the bakery, the produce department did well so those managers are entitled to their bonus. In a business where you can’t afford to lose your top produces, sometimes there is an incongruous result.

That said, folks like Thain who are responsible for the store should not get bonuses. Ironically, one of the smaller investment banks that I am very familiar with, that is still independent, the Managing Directors, or Partners as they used to be known, did not take bonuses because the firm lost money. However, they did pay more modest bonuses to those below them because they met their performance metrics.

Like the Citigroup corporate jet fiasco, this is another example of many of these executives being tone deaf. This isn’t the way to treat the long-suffering taxpayers who are contributing to the bailouts and will never see anything like the bonuses these people are receiving. It is really sad.